Grace Smith and her spirited daughters Tassie and Selina are shocked to learn that Josiah Smith’s will has left them – and the entire family fortune – in the hands of a complete stranger. Once the women get over this shock, they slowly adjust their lives and welcome the charming and financially savvy Max McKenzie into the family. But a distant cousin believes that Max conceals a secret that could destroy them all. And he’s determined to find out. With money, position, love, and integrity at stake, the stage is set for passion and betrayal in this marvelous Victorian family saga.

…

HIGH TIDE by Veronica Henry – (Kindle download, NetGalley offer)

Pennfleet might be a small town, but there’s never a dull moment in its narrow winding streets …

Kate has only planned a flying visit to clear out the family home after the death of her mother. When she finds an anonymous letter, she is drawn back into her own past.

Single dad Sam is juggling his deli and two lively teenagers, so romance is the last thing on his mind. Then Cupid fires an unexpected arrow – but what will his children think?

Nathan Fisher is happy with his lot, running picnic cruises up and down the river, but kissing the widow of the richest man in Pennfleet has disastrous consequences.

Vanessa knows what she has done is unseemly for a widow, but it’s the most fun she’s had for years. Must she always be on her best behaviour?

As autumn draws in and the nights grow longer, there are sure to be fireworks in this gloriously engaging novel.

The morning it all started, newspaper reporter David Harwood had plenty to worry about. A single parent with no job, forced to return with his young son to the small town of Promise Falls to live with his parents, the future wasn’t looking too rosy. So when his mother asked him to look in on his cousin Marla, who was still not quite right after losing her baby, it was almost a relief to put the disaster his own life had become to one side.

The relief wouldn’t last long.

When he gets to Marla’s house he’s disturbed to find a smear of blood on the front door. He’s even more disturbed to find Marla nursing a baby, a baby she claims was delivered to her ‘by an angel.’ And when, soon after, a woman’s body is discovered across town, stabbed to death, with her own baby missing, it looks as if Marla has done something truly terrible.

But while the evidence seems overwhelming, David just can’t believe that his cousin is a murderer. In which case, who did kill Rosemary Gaynor? And why did they then take her baby and give it to Marla? With the police convinced they have an open and shut case, it’s up to David to find out what really happened, but he soon discovers that the truth could be even more disturbing…

…

…Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house during the last week. Be warned that Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home, where links may be added each week. So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for our three new joint administrators, after all, we all like to receive them … ‘Mailbox Monday’

Yvonne

I can’t remember a time, even as a child, when I haven’t been passionate about books and reading.
I began blogging, when I realised just how many other people out there shared my passion for the written word and I have been continually amazed at the wealth of books that are available and the amount of great new friends I have made, from literally 'The Four Corners Of The World'.

24 comments

I do enjoy a good thriller and I already have a couple of Linwood Barclay paperbacks on my shelf, which my father has enjoyed reading and recommends, so I was chuffed to bits to receive an advance copy of ‘Broken Promises’ from NetGalley.

‘Return Of The Stranger’ is a historical romance, which was recommended to me by a customer who was browsing the charity shop shelves, as I was replenishing them. As she is a regular customer and we have often chatted about our different favourite authors, I generally trust her to find me a great new book to explore 🙂

High Tide sounds really good to me. I’m familiar with Linwood Barclay’s name but, as far as I can remember, I’ve never read one of his books. I’m not sure why I haven’t because they sounds like something I’d enjoy. Have a great week, Yvonne!

I have to admit that I don’t tend to read a lot of contemporary romance, although ‘High Tide’ did appeal to me, as the author Veronica Henry lives down in my part of the world and the place settings for her books are likewise, known territory for me. The cover art is also quite appealing, which is even further enhanced when her entire suite of book covers are seen together.

I have quite eclectic reading tastes and will try almost any genre once, with the exception of Sci-Fi. However I have to admit that of the three books I received this time, ‘Broken Promise’ will probably be the first one to feature on my reading list … I do love a good thriller, especially when this is the first part of a trilogy centring on Linwood’s fictional upstate New York town, Promise Falls.

Broken Promise looks the best to me, followed by your charity shop purchase. High Tide sounds like it might have a little more romance than I really like. I hope you’ll read Broken Promise first…it has me asking a lot of questions!

I got several books this week for various reasons, but will wait and share titles as I get to them in my stack. 😉

I don’t tend to read a lot of contemporary romance, although it does ‘ring the changes’ ocassionally. I generally tend to stick to home-grown UK authors then, especially when, as in Veronica Henry’s case, they are an author who lives in my own part of the country and who writes about places which, whilst they may be fictional, I can relate to.

You’ll never take the thriller lover out of me though, so ‘Broken Promise’ is always going to get top billing out of this particular selection.

I find myself listing books in MM, which I then never seem to go on and read, so perhaps I should follow your lead nd only share them when I am ready to start reading. However MM is a great place to find new books and authors that perhaps I might never have discovered, so I can’t see me giving up posting any time soon 🙂

I like the sounds to Return of a Stranger and Broken Promise. I now have 2 more books to add to my TBR list!!!! Is Return of a Stranger part of a series? It sounds like a mystery, suspense type genre, is it in that type of genre?

Thanks for choosing to stop by Fiction Books today. I love making new friends, so your visits will always be welcome and your comments always appreciated 🙂

All of Reay Tannahill’s books were stand alone novels, with the exception of two books published as the start of a series and written just prior to her death in 2007. I have left a link where you can see all of her books in chronological order and check out the individual synopses ..

Linwwood Barclay isn’t a new name on my shelves, although as ever, there are simply too many books and not enough time, so I just haven’t got around to reading any of them yet.

My Goodreads ‘Want To Read’ list is never ending and I haven’t even begun to transfer all of my e-books onto it yet. As for my actual review page for a book … I have so many outstanding that I just know I will have even forgotten reading some of them!!

I haven’t heard much from them for some time now, in fact I have not been accepted for a few of the books I have requested of late. I think it might be that I have a huge backlog of actual reviews to catch up on, so I am not posting regularly enough for them.

I was quite surprised when my requests for ‘Broken Promises’ and ‘High Tide’ were turned around in a matter of minutes, so I aim to improve my review rate with them, as their freebie books are invaluable 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to check out this week’s post and have a good week 🙂

I think that the notion of a single parent father with a young son, in ‘Broken Promise’, is definitely the most difficult of these parent / child relationships. Although wait … in ‘High Tide’ we have another single father with two teenaged children to raise … I don’t envy either of them actually 🙂

Thanks for that interesting slant on the conversation, I love those diverse comments which make you see things from a totally different perspective 🙂

And you know Yvonne, I watch True Crime tv programs and they have showcased cases like that, where a woman steals a baby then kills the mother. Very disturbing! And some of these women go on living with the stolen babies for some time before being caught. Maybe in this book, Marla is being set up.
Enjoy it, it sounds intense.

In some ways stealing a baby from its mother, is worse than the cases you hear of where babies are stolen from hospital. Once the mother has taken her baby home, the bonding process is usually well underway and for the baby to then be taken must be awful. In this case though, the mother is obviously killed, which for me might be just as well, unless of course there are other children involved – I couldn’t envisage life without knowing where my child was !